8/26/12

My daughter just adores it when I play with her. This whole set up took about 45 minutes to construct, and that does not even include the playing time after. We created a kitchen and them pretended to follow recipes to cook food. I did not come up with any of this, I merely followed her lead. I had a blast.

I love the thrifts store. Most of these foods we got in bags from Value Village, a thrift store in Hyattsville, MD. When older kids come for playmates they too love playing with fake foods. Notice how we sorted all the food. Top shelf for drinks, bottom bowl for fruits and vegetables, canned goods middle left, eggs on top.....

Nora and I spent one whole afternoon a few days back melting old crayons and pouring out the colors onto small canvases. We also used the foil to create molds of things we had around the house and pouring melted crayon wax in them to create interesting shapes.

Nora adding a piece of rolled foil onto hers (above). See her heart mold (top one). In mine, the canvas below, I kept using pealed pieces of wax we've poured onto foil and trying to attach them to my canvas. We used various home tools to make scratches on our wet/soft wax.

I have terrible luck with hair salons. For prom, I went to a salon to get prettied-up to the 'big day', and three well-meaning elderly ladies gave me what 'they' called a french twist. Sounds exotic right? WRONG!! It looked more like one of those hairdos from the 50's and I went home, cried my eyes out, washed it all out and wore my hair down and boring. I'm sure if I got one of those hairdos now, I'd be more than ecstatic, but at 16 years old, I was too insecure and shy to pull off a beehive. A few years later, in my 20's, I got brave and hopeful once again and went to a Dominican hair salon with my mom, being new to salons, I did not know to ask for no blowdrying, or hairspray; neither of which I ever use on my hair. I walked out of there looking like I was about 45. These are just a few misadventures of my unassertive youth, but I can assure you each one carries quiet disappointment and tears. This should then explain why I spent the majority of my adult years wearing a ponytail. I wore it well, mind you, but nevertheless it got to be terribly boring. Therefore, when I found Evelyn, at Simply Bliss, it was as if I had found diamonds. Looking back it was a combinations of things that created the perfect chemistry and I thought I'd share it here so that you too can find your very own 'hair whisperer'. I'm sure there are many, but these are the ones that were relevant to me:1. They must know hair. This is HUGE!!! My hair when cut short curls (especially in DC when it's always humid), when long it looks limp and plays dead. I know a friend whose hair has weight and falls straight no matter what length it is. All I can say is THIS comes with experience. I can't tell you HOW to find someone who has this skill. 2. Bring a picture of a 'do' with someone whose hair type matches you. This is so important. I brought a few pictures of the type of hair I wanted. They were of all the same person, various views. If you pick a celebrity, it's often easy to find various perspectives of the same person on Google Images. The crux is that this person's hair MUST match your hair type. If you have no clue what I am talking about, do what I do, touch your friends' hair more often, you will become aware of how different hair can feel, but also how different hair can weigh. 3. Talk in silhouettes. A silhouette, according to www.dictionary.com, atwo-dimensionalrepresentationoftheoutlineofanobject, uniformlyfilledin withblack. My silhouette, whenever I have gotten my cut in the past, has always been the shape of a capital letter A. I hated this shape on my face and thought because of the way my hair behaves that I'd be doomed with my 'A-shaped silhouette' head my whole life. But the day I began talking about NOT wanting an A-shaped silhouette was the day my hair cutter made sure my hair did not do that anymore, simple. This speaks to the importance of being able to clearly define your vision of both what you want and also what you don't want.

Okay, my room is FAR from done....but I am very proud of what I've done so far. It took me 4 half days to even get it to this point, and I still have lots of work to do to get it to match my vision of a safe, warm and exciting Spanish art room.

This is my door. Lots of storage on the left and the right (not pictured).

This is the view of my tables, my whiteboard, more storage, my sink (way in the back on the right). I have 7 tables altogether. So much potential!!!

A blurry picture of my display area (left) with rug. I will be getting an Elmo, a projector, and a cart next week. The papers you see were in this room, but they are going to the storage closet.

My paper shelf. I took out about 300lbs. of paper out of here and placed them in our lockable art teacher closet. In this one I leap watercolor. On top are my multicultural paper, below that are my black papers, below that are drawing papers (2 shelves) and last, my watercolor papers.

My demo area.

I did this in my last class and it's just so visually appealing that I had to do it again. It brings mystery and interest to ones class.

The models on display here in my window, which faces trees.

View of my classroom from the entrance. Sorry for the blurriness.

View of my classroom with the lights off......look at those trees!! what a view. I need more plants. So if you have any plants you no longer need, I'd be glad to adopt them for my classroom.

Hallways full of art teacher bulletin boards. We, the three art teachers at the school, are responsible for over 20 bulletin boards that are expected to be changed often. Thankfully, we are given time in our schedule to put up displays. Can's wait to meet the kids. All classes I see twice a week, some even three times a week. Will post more next week after I have created and added all the signs.